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A blog about living, loving, and urban homesteading in the Pacific North West & Midwest. Everything from gardening and home renovation to recipes and moving tips. Building community and growing together.

Is it cold and flu season already?

It seems like every time I try to go on vacation and especially to a Scottish festival, I get sick. One particular festival my family attended for most of my life, I would get sick. Every. Single. Year. And then we figured out it was severe allergies reacting to cottonwood and pine pollen, which are ripening every year around the same time/area that the festival is held. I can recall at least three separate years where I sounded like a tuberculosis patient throughout the weekend.

It should therefore stand to reason that I'm used to traveling while sick. And I am! I tend to pack as much and as many remedies as I think I might need, unabashedly and unashamed to do so. When I don't, I regret it.

Still, there is nothing quite like being able to curl up on your own bed or couch and nest when you're sick. Treating every sniffle and cough and achy joint with the care and comfort of a baby mama with her chicks. The last cold I had, I nested myself into the deep, cushy love seat in our den, and just waited it out. Although I can't say I "just" waited it out. I did my best to burn it out with Bourbon and Scotch (in lemon-honey tea or hot cider). I can't say that I honestly think that a sustained medium level of intoxication over three days actually helped kill off the cold virus. But I can say that I felt that cold progressing through the stages by the HOUR, I didn't end up with pneumonia for the first time in ages, and even the cough that usually lingers for weeks after was gone in another couple days. So I figure it's worth a shot if you have the chance. Worse comes to worst, at least it makes the experience a little more bearable.

This time I just don't have the opportunity. The symptoms started last night, I was up and out the door early this morning, and we are determined to get to the highland games tomorrow morning. Although if I have to cancel bowling on Sunday because I pushed myself too hard while sick, I won't exactly be surprised. In the meantime, I'm pumping fluids and drinking the childhood version of lemon-honey tea, minus the bourbon. And if we only spend a couple hours at the festival tomorrow, well, at least we got to see it!
--------------------What do you do to get through a cold?

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Just a small town girl, living in a lonely world... From a small university town in Michigan to the slightly larger city of Seattle. I'm a dreamer, a schemer, and an explorer. I'm very glad my partner lets me have a polyamorous love affair with coffee, because Coffee and I love each other very much. I'm coming to terms with being disabled; living with PTSD, OCD, and other such Alphabet Soup mental health complications, plus a bunch of physical Stuff including chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, and limited mobility. I feel like this blog is an important part of my journey. Something I need to share with others, to help us all grow and learn and change ourselves for the better with a sense of community about us. It's at least 50% cooking, but there's a bunch of other stuff here too!